Business: Volkswagen Offers Apprenticeship Program

Beyond never having ‘bugs’ (ha) Volkswagen is working on a new innovative program to hire more workers: apprenticeships. “Right now we’re in a situation where, on the one hand, we have these high levels of youth unemployment and on the other hand, we have employers saying we can’t hire the people we need to hire,” Sarah Ayres-Steinberg, a senior policy analyst at the nonprofit Center for American Progress. “Clearly there’s some friction in the labor market — and apprenticeship eliminates that friction.” The most recent class of Volkswagen apprentices included 25 students from Chattanooga State Community College. For their work with the German automaker pays a wage throughout the education; wages start at $10 an hour and increasing $1 for each completed semester. When the students complete the 5 year apprenticeship, they are offered a permanent job with the the company.